


Christmas Eve Traditions

by Mistress_Humble



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Cheating, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Drunk Gavin, Exes, F/M, Gavin Reed Backstory, Gavin Reed Needs a Hug, Gavin Reed Redemption, Gavin Reed Swears, Gavin Reed confronts his ex, Gayvin Reed, Hurt Gavin Reed, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Oneshot, Other, Past Relationship(s), Sad with a Happy Ending, Swearing, gavin reed is gay, oneshots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 13:51:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16119779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistress_Humble/pseuds/Mistress_Humble
Summary: Gavin has made it a tradition of calling his ex fiancé every Christmas Eve since she left him. Rebecca has made it a tradition of picking up when he calls. But this year is different. This year he decides to visit her in person.One shot rated Mature for Swearing





	Christmas Eve Traditions

For the past six years, my phone always rang at about 11:30 pm on Christmas Eve. I never had to check the caller ID; I knew exactly who it was. I dreaded his phone calls because it meant revisiting my past, but who else was I going to spent my holidays with? And he didn’t have anybody either. So there I sat as I did every year on my sofa, watching TV in my bathrobe and awaiting the jingle from my cell. But this year was different. This year, the call never came.

Instead, at midnight sharp, there were three sharp raps on my door. I nearly jumped out of my skin, more out of shock than true fear. I guess I knew who it was, but my paranoid side made me wrap my robe tighter around myself as I approached my closed front door.

“Who is it?”

“Fuckin’ Santa, that’s who. Merry Christmas.” Gavin’s slurred words which usually breached my ears from over the phone rang out from the other side. “Please open up, its freezin’ out here.”

“Jesus, Gav, I can't have you showing up at my door just whenever, I-“

“What about family tradition? We have a tradition!”

“We aren’t family, Gavin.” I gritted my teeth, already almost fed up with his bullshit. I was just about to walk away when I heard something that I hadn’t in a long, long time.

“Please.” His voice broke as he choked the words out. “For old times sake, Rebecca.” 

I looked at my feet in frustration. Here he was, my ex fiancé, the “One and Only Almighty Gavin Reed”, drunk as hell and freezing his ass off outside my front door. A large part of me wanted to leave him out here, to tell him to fuck off and leave me alone, but a deeper part of me was worried. He wouldn’t do this unless something was very wrong. So with that in mind, I unlocked the door and opened it.

There he was, towering above me as always, and yet he looked so small. He looked a little too thin, and he had deep bruises under his eyes. He had the decency not to bring his bottle to my front step, but the smell of his favorite holiday whiskey was heavy on his person. Overall, he simply looked… lost. 

“Can I come in?”

“Uh, yes,” I muttered and stepped aside. “Sorry for staring, you just look so…”

“Shitty?”

“Yes, that’s one way of putting it,” I chuckled as I closed the door behind him. “What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know, I just thought I’d…” he looked around my living room, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck, “drop by this year instead.”

“How did you know I’m alone? I could have someone in the back, all tied up and ready for some kinky Christmas shit.”

“You don’t,” Gavin met my eyes. His were serious and sort of… sad. “We both know you’re better than that. Besides, I knew you were waiting for me. You answered the door right away.”

“Well, you got me,” I shrugged. “What’d you come to do, watch the old animated Grinch and drink nog with me?”

“I came to talk, like we do every year.”

“You could have just called.”

“No.” He looked to the floor. “What I have to say is better said face-to-face.” We were both silent, trying to look anywhere but at each other. 

“I came…” he took a deep breath. “To apologize.” I laughed.

“Woah now, Gav, you’re drunk, don’t say something you’ll regret later.”

“I mean it.”

“Well which part? Are you here to apologize for manipulating me? For seducing me? For making me give up my body and free will and do things I didn’t want to do?” I turned my back to him, crossing my arms over my chest. Three years of therapy and I still turned back to who I was when I left him; a broken, bitter young woman who asked too many damn questions. “Or to apologize for cheating? For sleeping around behind my back, and not with a woman even. With a man! Am I that unappealing to you?! You used me all up and I was so insufficient that you realized women in general just weren’t your thing?” I was yelling now. I might get a complaint in the morning from the neighbors, I guess, but what use was calling the cops when one was already here, standing wasted in front of me. 

“That’s not why I did that!”

“Then why did you?!” I turned around again and thrust my finger into his chest, standing as straight as I could to try to get in his face. “Why did you hurt me like that? Why did you go behind my back? With the affairs and all that porn and the intricate lies… Why?”

“Because I was scared!” He threw his arms over his head and gazed at the ceiling. “I thought there was something wrong with me! I started feeling a certain way towards men, and I thought if I could prove to myself that I wasn’t gay, that I could be with you!”

“That’s not how that works! Why didn’t you just talk to me?!”

“I was too caught up in it all! It was too late! I… I thought you would leave me…”

“I left you because you DIDN’T say anything! Because no where in this intricate plan of yours did it ever occur to you to talk to me, the woman you were going to get married to!”

“I’m sorry, okay?!” He looked at his feet, and I stayed silent. Gavin looked like he was really struggling. “I’m sorry… that it took me so long to figure this out about myself.. and I’m sorry that I hurt you… while I was figuring it out.”

“Gavin,” I drew in a shaky breath. I wanted to hit him, to tear him apart from the inside out. To make him feel all the pain that his actions had put me through. But instead, I remembered. I remembered the words I had so carefully written and read aloud to my therapist so many times and in so many different ways. “Gavin Reed, I don’t think you’re gay. I don’t think you’re straight. I think all you are is selfish.” I took a step closer to him, my chest heaving as I forced out the words which had fermented in my chest over the years. “We were supposed to be partners, you and me against the world, but you let your addictions get in the way and overtake you. I became simply another outlet for you, and if I, the closest thing you’ve ever had to a wife, was simply an object in your eyes, then god help everyone else you encounter on a day-to-day basis. You disgust me.” He looked as if he might collapse right there and then, fall down onto the earth and never get back up again. And then I began the second half of my speech.

“But where you are lacking, I see room for great improvement. You could become a steadfast partner, someone a person could look up to and rely on. I see that in you. But first, you need to stop hiding behind the alcohol. You need to man up and face your actions like an adult. Take responsibility for them. Own them. See a therapist, get your shit together, take a yoga class, go vegan, I don’t care. What I’m trying to say is… before you have any chance of loving someone else, you need to get yourself together and love you first.” 

I had said this so many times in my head, always trying to recreate how I thought he might react. I wasn’t sure, as I closed my mouth, whether he would break down and cry or kill me. His face looked like he might do both. Instead, he fell to his knees in front of me.

“I’m… sorry… Becky. I’m so sorry…” And then he started to weep.

Once, when I was a little girl, I watched one of my childhood friends fall out of a tree and break his ankle. He didn’t really cry, though he did shed tears. All he really did was gasp frantically. I would never forget that sound. That’s what Gavin sounded like as I wrapped my arms around his head as his arms engulfed my hips. He cried into my stomach for what seemed like hour, but in reality it was probably only 20 minutes. His slowing hiccups sounded almost like gags as he came off his emotional rollercoaster. And then he said the weirdest thing to me.

“Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too, ya weirdo.”

“...Still down to watch the Grinch?”

“Hell yes.”


End file.
